Selling prints online, seeking Europe advice

Above: newest addition to my Little Nightmares set. Yes, it's a monster squirrel!

After advice from Beckett, I've decided not to go with the convention art show idea...there's not enough money in it, plus I don't tend to attend general sf/fantasy conventions anymore, just filk events.

Instead, I'm investigating online services that will sell prints of my digital artwork. Why go with a service rather than do it myself? Because I don't want the administration hassle (packaging, mailing, customs fees etc.); I'd rather spend the time writing and drawing.

Anyway, I was considering DeviantArt, but their copyright policy makes me a tad nervous. From the Wikipedia entry on DeviantArt: "Historically there has been sporadic unease regarding deviantART's potential usage of uploaded art. Posting requires assent to dA's Submission Agreement, which grants deviantART the legal permissions to re-use and even modify any artwork posted on deviantART (see in particular Section 3. License), as well as the right to sublicense any of that artwork to a third party at dA's sole discretion." In order to sell a print through the service, you need to upload it to the regular database.

However, some respected artists use the service, and it would hurt deviantART's reputation quite badly if they abused the copyright clause.

There's my Cafepress store, of course, but it's not really a venue for selling prints. Flickr sells prints, but only to U.S. citizens. They recommend QOOP for non-U.S types, but the service only seems to offer books and posters, not prints.

There seem to be a zillion services online that enable photographers/artists to sell prints; I have no idea how to choose. Hm. Maybe this would make a good magazine article. :-)

Anyway, if any of you have experience or advice, I'd appreciate it.

Seeking Europe travel advice!

Meanwhile, I'm getting more and more excited about our Europe trip. We'll be visiting places I've never been, including Paris, Florence, Tuscany area in Italy, Rome. Jeff and I have been getting a lot of useful advice from friends and family who have already travelled in those places.

As I've mentioned in a previous Blathering, Jeff and I tend not to be as interested in the standard tourist attractions as some others may be (e.g. we will probably opt NOT to go up the Eiffel Tower, though I do plan to look at it :-)) and we both hate long line-ups...the pain of the latter weighs heavily against the lure of the former. We only have two full days in Paris, and would rather spent the hour or two people-watching at a sidewalk cafe on the Champs Elysées than standing in a queue. We plan to spend one of the days walking along the Seine, checking out art galleries, parks and other interesting sights along the way. We'll be spending the bulk of our visit in the Tuscany area of Italy, courtesy the generosity of my mom-in-law (thanks, Ginny!).

Anyway, I welcome suggestions from any of you with travel experience in the above-mentioned places. I'm especially interested in interesting culinary experiences, preferably inexpensive and authentic to a region. One of you mentioned a particularly good chocolate shop in Paris a while ago; sadly, I've lost the note I made, and can't recall who it was or the name of the shop. I promise to paste the info into my Notetaker file right away this time!

Miscellaneous links and news:

An obituary about Dan Gibson appeared in today's Toronto Star. As I mentioned in a Blathering several weeks back, Dan Gibson passed away on March 18th.

To "tigertoy", "chriso" and "avt-tor": your LJ icons are next.

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